What Would I Give Up?- Snowbarry High School AU

Chapter 1

What a horrible day? The rain was unrelenting and hadn't stopped all day. To make matters worse, the wind was howling with force this morning and so on her laborious walk to school her umbrella had been blown away. Luckily she was only a minute away from school so she wasn't too wet but walking home was horrible for Caitlin. It was a half hour walk from school to home and now more than ever she was sick of her parents not buying her a car.

As she stomped down the street, holding her school bag over her head to catch the rain, she heard cars speed past almost splashing her every time. If she got her school uniform soaked then her mother would kill her let alone how horrible that walk home would be- the seventeen-year-old shuddered at the thought. 

She'd just began her final year at high school and for Caitlin, it was utter hell. She hated every moment of her posh, upper-class school. Sure her father was a senator and her mother owned award-winning restaurants all over the globe- her family was loaded- and that had perks and she wasn't selfish enough to shun them. It wasn't even that she wasn't academic, she had high grades that she worked hard for, yet she had always felt that she didn't belong.

Her brother, Charlie was away at Harvard Law school where her parents hoped she would join him next year but-

"Hey, it's Looney Snow!" a loud obnoxious voice suddenly pulled her out of her stupor. Caitlin looked up and saw a group of kids in her year in their perfect school uniform, boys and girls alike, with their windows rolled down to laugh at her from their shiny Mercedes. 

"She's daydreaming again!" another girl called out with a mocking laugh. All the girls had perfectly made up faces with perfect hair styled in the best salons in the city of Philadelphia, she imagined their spotless manicures and pedicures were done there. They looked so perfect in contrast to Caitlin's completely natural face and wet hair. "I say we wake her up, don't you think so girls?" the girl continued with a smirk. 

Before Caitlin could say anything in response, the boy driving the car reversed and then accelerated to splash her with a torrent of water. Laughing cruelly and hysterically, they continued to drive off leaving her absolutely soaked. 

This was why Caitlin hated school so much. The other rich kids hated her, she wasn't like them even if she was a senator's daughter. She was a dreamer and she didn't fit in with their status quo. By now, she knew she was crying even though she was covered in water she could feel the familiar sting and pool in her brown eyes. 

She sniffed and put her backpack on her back, seeing no more use of holding it above her head now. She continued her walk knowing that there were another twenty minutes of walking until she arrived home. She hadn't the energy to run and she knew that she would soon get so gold that she couldn't. But she kept on going with the image of a nice hot bubble bath, hot chocolate and a good book to make her feel better when she got home. It would be her only comfort because there was no way she was going to tell her parents this. 

These days being curled up in bed with her fluffy robe and a book with her favourite calming music playing was her only solace. Shed' never really hard any friends since she was eleven or maybe even younger than that. She couldn't remember a time when there was someone in her life that she felt she could tell anything to. God knows she couldn't tell her parents. 

Then she heard the screech of brakes next to her. She didn't even look at first, thinking it was just someone else from school who'd come to mock her. 

"Excuse me, miss, would you like a ride?" it was clearly a male voice but not the creepy kind that you'd expect to ask you that question. He sounded her age. 

"I'm sorry" she replied, turning to him. He certainly didn't go to her school- she could tell from the old-looking grey Toyota that he drove- and she didn't recognise him. But he looked her age on the surface, at least.